Young boy’s welcoming letter to refugees gives us all hope

Posted by Jason Treuen at September 23 2016, 10:05am

With the political debate about refugees sinking to new lows both here and overseas, a six-year-old’s beautiful letter has restored our faith in humanity.

After seeing shocking images from the Syrian conflict, six-year-old Alex from New York recently wrote a letter to US President Obama, who this week shared it with the United Nations Leaders Summit On Refugees and on social media.

“Remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria?” Alex writes, referring to Omran Daqneesh, the injured five-year-old whose heart-breaking, shell-shocked photo in an ambulance after an airstrike went viral last month - here it is in The Guardian).

“Can you please go get him and bring him to our home?” asks Alex. “Park in the driveway or on the street and we’ll be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers and balloons. We will give him a family and he will be our brother.”

He continues: “Catherine, my little sister, will be collecting butterflies and fireflies for him. In my school, I have a friend from Syria, Omar, and I will introduce him to Omar. We can all play together. We can invite him to birthday parties and he will teach us another language. We can teach him English too, just like my friend Aoto from Japan.

“Please tell him that his brother will be Alex who is a very kind boy, just like him. Since he won't bring toys and doesn't have toys Catherine will share her big blue stripy white bunny. And I will share my bike and I will teach him how to ride it... I will teach him additions and subtractions in math. And he [can] smell Catherine's lip gloss penguin which is green. She doesn't let anyone touch it. Thank you very much! I can't wait for you to come!”

Oh, Alex we just want to hug you (and make you President!). Talk about showing the grown-ups what’s important. Alex’s little letter shows more love and compassion than some politicians have displayed when it comes to this dire humanitarian issue.

Posting the video on Facebook, the outgoing President wrote:

“We should all be more like Alex. Imagine what the world would look like if we were. Imagine the suffering we could ease and the lives we could save."